Month: August 2014

On Friday morning, I had the opportunity to attend another panel discussion by Arboretum Festival and presented by Creative Mornings Ottawa. The topic from the panel discussion was called Where’s The Cultural Press? The panel consisted of moderator Rolf Klausener (founder of Aboretum Festival), Sharif Virani & Michael Gregoriev as hosts.

The panel itself had Marie LeBlanc Flanagan (founder/director of Weird Canada), Peter Simpson (arts writer for the Ottawa Citizen), Lesley Marshall (editor of Small Talk) and supposedly, Allan Wigney (music writer/editor, Bubbles Wig, ex-editor Ottawa Xpress) was scheduled to be part of the panel but no showed.

The discussion of cultural press ranged from the consumption on readers from physical to digital to what’s changing the cultural press. Certain parts had some contentious issues as print media has dwindled and cater more for the older readers. An example is the print version would cover opera instead of a rock concert. Young people are more into the online and digital culture as a more convenient way to access materials.

It was a good panel discussion, even though one person was missing. For those who missed it and interested, you can watch it over from Livestream by clicking here.

You can check out the photos from Flickr by clicking here. There’s also the final set of Impossible Project Spectra instant photos in double exposure from below.
Have a great weekend.Continue reading →

On Tuesday night, Arboretum Music Festival held another free and fun event called See You In Hull, which was presented by Ottawa Vélo Vogue and Raw Sugar Cafe. It was a social and bike convoy event as people who brought their bicycles to travel from Raw Sugar Cafe in Ottawa Chinatown to Le Troquet in Hull, Quebec. Prior to the bike ride, there were portraits taken with people and their bikes.
At Raw Sugar Cafe, they had the delicious pull pork sandwich and chilli served.
The weather was also nice outside as it was totally sunny for the whole day.

For the photos, it is posted over at Flickr. The latter half of the photos were shot on the iPhone. You can check them out by clicking here.
Posted below are The Impossible Project Cyanograph SX-70 instant photos. I held out using the experimental film as it’s quite a unique, single colour. I had a difficult time touching up the photo after it got scanned due to the sensitivity of the film.

I’m still continuing on with the summer specials.Arboretum Music Festival is in its third year and Monday night at Art Court was the launch of the young festival. In kicking off the festival, there was a panel discussion called Why I Left Ottawa. The panel discussion consisted of Kathleen Edwards (singer-songwriter and her hit albums, Voyageur and Asking For Flowers), Remi Thériault (Ottawa based photographer), Olivier Fairfield (drummer of Timber Timbre), and Emmanuel Sayer (director, Ottawa Explosion Weekend and CHUO program director). Moderator was Jason St. Laurent, curator of Saw Gallery. Prior to the panel discussion, there was Charcuterie & snacks provided by The Albion Rooms.

The panel discussed why Ottawa is considered boring but the panelists have said that the city is gradually getting interesting since their return. Edwards mentioned that music venue in Ottawa are getting less visible and that major bands and artists skip Ottawa because of the lack of venue availability. There was mentions of grants from the city and whether it’s viable to the artists, bands and fledging festivals.

Overall, it was a great panel discussion and it was over capacity as there were people standing further back of the Art Courts room.
Got to give props to festival organizer, Rolf Klausener and the staff for bringing a unique festival in Ottawa. Where’s there music, there’s other non-music events to discover at Arboretum Music Festival.

It has been a rainy week in the Nation’s Capital, but the wet soggy and chilly climate could not deter various events happening on the weekend. I had the opportunity to attend the Ottawa Mini Maker Faire, which was held at the Canada Science and Technology Museum. The family-friendly event which in its 4th year is a festival of creativity and showing inventions coming from a DIY aspect. A lot of exhibitors ranged from gadgets to a lot of demonstrations from robotics and products using 3D printing, just to name a few. There were workshops and panel during the event.
Over 600 plus came out to the event for Saturday, quite surprising as the festival brings out the fun technology in all ages.
Photos from the event are posted on Flickr, you can check the photos by clicking here.

The other museum to go on Saturday night was at the Canadian Museum of Nature. It was a lion dance performance for a wedding reception. Prior to performing, I brought along the Polaroid Spectra Camera to try shooting the double exposure effect. I posted two photos onto my Facebook page and I will post them here. The lion dance performance was great as usual and the newlyweds probably enjoyed the colourful lions dancing around them for good luck and prosperity.
The photos are also on Flickr, you can the photos by clicking here.

Overall, it was a great weekend in Ottawa. Another event is happening and that’s the Arboretum Music Festival. It’s in their 3rd year running and they got an excellent lineup from the Constantines, Kevin Drew, Hilotrons and a bunch of others. There’s definitely lots of do in Ottawa as Summer is not quite over yet.Continue reading →

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Here’s a bit of a update with a Summer special entry. In a way, it’s more of a midsummer update as Summer is halfway through and there’s been interesting events I was able to check out.
There were Canada Day (2014 edition), a trip to Stratford, Ontario, the Casino Lac Leamy Sound of Light Fireworks and Etsy Road Trip.

You check out the photos from below. There’s also some Impossible Project photos that were taken.
Enjoy!Continue reading →